


More Fun to Talk

by Ghostery



Series: Jim + Tilly Friendship [1]
Category: Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: 5+1 Things, Canon Compliant, Drinking, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Not Really Character Death, Spoilers, Starfleet Academy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 12:06:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18604201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostery/pseuds/Ghostery
Summary: “Hey! Where are you going?”“To class? Room SE115?” Tilly responded, stopping and turning to see who was talking to her. He only had one bar on his jacket insignia, so he was a newbie like her, but he definitely hadn’t been in her orientation group or any group she’d seen.“Me too. Room SE115 is down this way.” He said gesturing behind himself with his thumb.“What? Are you serious? I was told it was this way.” Tilly had a hard time believing this guy knew more about this place than the upperclassman.5 + 1 scenes of a friendship.





	More Fun to Talk

**Author's Note:**

> Tilly and Kirk were born the same year and almost definitely attended Starfleet Academy together. They also had both almost certainly worked near or in engineering fields at the beginning of their careers (Kirk canonically has a post as a technician). They probably had classes and knew each other. What if they were friends? I couldn't get it out of my head. This is as canon-compliant as I could make it, but Kirk's Academy experience is a bit of a mess. I also didn't have a beta, but I tried my best. All mistakes are mine and I apologize. Feedback is appreciated.  
> Edit: Fixed some html, there were line break tags where there should have been paragraph tags, also found a little lost sentence and returned it to the fold.  
> Edit 9/26/19: Low-level edits.

**1**

Tilly was lost. She was very lost. She swore this place wasn’t this confusing during the orientation tour. She turned left hoping she was at least in the correct part of the building this time. She glanced down at the PADD in her hands again to check her schedule. Great, now she was probably going to be late too. Shit. She rounded yet another corner and smacked straight into something or rather someone. Her PADD and micro records came out of their folio and scattered around their feet. She bent to start gathering them up.

“Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry. I should look where I’m going. Running was probably a mistake too...” she trailed off and looked at who she had run into.

An upperclassman, shit.

“Don’t worry about it. You lost or something?” said the upperclassman.

At least he sounded more amused about all this than anything. Tilly stood up.

“Uh, yeah, actually. I’m looking for SE115?”

“Right, yeah. Keep going down this corridor and make a right. Last door in that hall. Can’t miss it.”

“Thanks. Sorry again for running into you,” Tilly said before walking away, following the upperclassman’s instructions.

“Don’t worry about it.” He repeated walking off in the opposite direction.

Tilly had just turned the corner when a voice behind her spoke up.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

“To class? Room SE115?” Tilly responded, stopping and turning to see who was talking to her.

He only had one bar on his jacket insignia, so he was a newbie like her, but he definitely hadn’t been in her orientation group or any group she’d seen.

“Me too. Room SE115 is down this way,” he said gesturing behind himself with his thumb.

“What? Are you serious? I was told it was this way.” Tilly had a hard time believing this guy knew more about this place than the upperclassman.

“Completely serious. That whole hallway is labs. Was it a big, tall, blonde upperclassman by any chance?” he asked.

“Yeah, actually.” Tilly walked to him, “How’d you guess?” She started following him down the hall.

“Just a lucky guess. I think he likes messing with plebes.” He stopped in front of the forth door to their left and sure enough, the plaque said SE115.

“I’m Sylvia Tilly, by the way. Just call me Tilly.” She stuck out her hand for a handshake, which he took her up on.

“Jim Kirk, nice to meet you.”

“We’re going to be so late aren’t we?” she asked.

“Not yet.”

 

**2**

 

 

They were very drunk, but it was a party. Tilly loved a good party when she needed to blow off some steam after the end of a term. It kept her out of trouble.

“We’re going to be in trouble if you can’t get the shields back up,” Jim said.

She’d said some of that aloud. Whoops.

“It’s a drinking game, not a battle sim.” Tilly threw back, “Hand me the hyper spanner. Ow. Don’t hit my fingers with it. I need those.”

“Sorry. Any chance you can go any faster?” His voice was a little strained.

“What? Blindfolded? Nope.”

“Which one of us had the idea for you to sit on my shoulders while you did this?”

“That’d be you. You can still get me the ladder, ya know.”

“You on a ladder while drunk and blindfolded? Somehow that sounds even more like a night in the infirmary than our current plan.”

“Then shut up; I’m almost finished,” Tilly said. There was a quiet whirring of tools as Tilly worked. She was never agreeing to do something like this again. She should have stuck to beer pong. Tilly’s thoughts drifted back to the party even as her fingers fumbled trying to figure out where the emitter access was again. “You should ask her out.”

“Who?”

“That one girl… Ruth something.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, absolutely. She was totally eyeing you all night.”

“I don’t believe you, because I was eyeing her all night and she never even looked my way.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever helps you sleep at night, buddy,” Tilly said. “Done.” She pulled off the blindfold. “Ow, it’s bright in here.”

He helped her down, making sure they didn’t fall over in the process.

“Huh, you did it,” Jim said looking at the tricorder he’d gotten out of the engineering toolkit they’d used.

He tapped it to send the readout and shut it off.

“You say that like I don’t do amazing things all the time,” Tilly said, handing him the spanner.

“You do amazing things all the time, Tilly,” Jim said suddenly serious in that way that drunk people sometimes are. “You’re going to be a captain someday.”

“You’re going to be a captain, too,” Tilly said equally serious. “Which means you should totally loosen up and ask Ruth out.” A beat and then, “Someone owes me a beer.”

Jim laughed. “Let’s get you that beer then.”

 

**3**

 

 

“How the hell did you do it?” Tilly nearly wailed.

They’d taken the Kobayashi Maru test. Tilly had hated it. Hated, hated, hated it. However, she’d accepted that it was a psychological test and that there wasn’t a right answer. There wasn’t a way to win. Jim, on the other hand, hadn’t accepted that. He’d immediately launched a campaign to be allowed to take it again and had somehow gotten them to relent, twice. Tilly didn’t know how he kept doing that, but she swore he could out-argue a computer if he was given the chance. Which oddly seemed to be exactly what he’d done because he’d beaten that damned unbeatable test.

“I don’t believe in no-win scenarios,” Jim said airily.

“That’s not an answer, that’s a feint. What did you do?” Tilly said.

Jim turned away and started messing with one of the snow globes on her desk. Ah ha. Something bad then. She had wondered why he’d disappeared for most of the day before the news broke. Jim flipped the snow globe he was holding back upright and set it on her desk with a soft thunk. He stared at the falling glitter and snow.

“All I’ve done today is explain how I beat that test.”

“Well, yeah, what did you expect? People to just sit back and accept that you did the impossible?” Tilly said. She sighed. “I guess I’ll just have to find out through scuttlebutt tomorrow.”

This time Jim sighed.

“I reprogrammed the simulation so it would be winnable, Tilly. I cheated. That’s all,” he said shaking the snow globe again.

Tilly just stared gobsmacked at him as what he said sunk in.

“Okay, new question. How the hell are you not expelled? Or have you already been expelled and are doing some sort of farewell tour?” Tilly said.

She had never considered that any of her handful of friends would be expelled. The idea that the walking and talking regulations book that was Jim Kirk would do something like cheat and be expelled bordered on ludicrous, but here they were.

“I haven’t been expelled. Officially, I beat the test with original thinking and got a commendation for it.” He took a deep breath. “Honestly Tills, I walked in there thinking I was done for.”

“You should have been.”

“The superintendent was more upset that the scenario could be altered than at my alterations. I mean, it pretty much boiled down to an old school SQL injection and how does that even happen in this century.” He shook his head. “They really need to work on security. It was child’s play to do it.”

“Naturally,” Tilly said, her voice flat.

It seemed to her that things like this just happened to him. He just found someone or something’s hidden lever and pulled it and things worked out. If he’d run away as a teenager he probably would have managed to get command of the ship he’d stowed away on and then got the colony planet he’d ended up on Federation membership, he was just that type of person. It was maddening.

“They also really don’t want my methods becoming common knowledge.”

“Well, duh.”

“So you won’t tell people?”

“Of course not.”

“Tilly, are you mad at me?”

“Of course. You got commended for cheating, Jim. Cheating on a test that’s supposed to psychologically assess us all because the best school in the quadrant turned out to be stupidly vulnerable to hacking. How am I not supposed to be upset at all of that?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh come on,” Tilly said.

“No, really I am. I wanted to beat the test so badly and I missed its purpose. I didn’t think about the impact it would have on the Academy as a whole going forward if I beat the test. I didn’t think about my friends who had also gone through the test. I didn’t even think about my own career. I just wanted to win and save a bunch of fictional people, because someday those will be real people. We’ll be making those decisions. I don’t want to watch more people die and be helpless to stop it. I can’t be sorry about saving people. I can’t be sorry for exposing a bunch of security risks. I can be sorry that I hurt my friends in the process and I am.” Jim said.

Tilly was still upset, but she was starting to understand.

While Tilly cared deeply about people, she still had yet to lose anyone permanently, as far as she knew. Even though she’d had some close calls while living with her father on board a Starfleet science vessel, everyone had always made it through. Jim had watched a massacre and had seen thousands of people die while he’d been spared. The Kobayashi Maru just wasn’t abstract for him as it was for her.

“I’m still mad at you, but I think I understand,” she said slowly.

“Okay.”

“I’ll probably even get over it.”

“Take your time.”

 

**4**

 

 

“No roommate yet?” Jim’s holographic image said from his spot on the armchair that was on her side of the room while Tilly sat cross-legged on her bed.

“Just got one yesterday. She’s supposed to be temporary, though.”

“Temporary? How the hell can they finally give you a roommate only for her to be temporary?” Jim said, bemused.

“Jim, she’s _Michael Burnham_ ,” Tilly said.

She could hardly believe it herself.

“ _What?_ I think the transmission must be breaking up because it sounded like you said your roommate was Michael Burnham. Starfleet’s first convicted mutineer _Michael Burnham_? What the hell is she doing on a Starfleet ship _Michael Burnham_? That one? The one that picked a fight with Klingons and her captain? _That Michael Burnham_?”

“Yeah,” Tilly said. “That’s the one. Something happened to the shuttle she was on and we picked it up.”

“Shouldn’t she be in the brig?” Jim asked.

“Probably, but she got in a fight in the mess with the other prisoners. I think they had to go to sickbay,” Tilly said.

Tilly was trying really hard not to be nervous about that. Michael hadn’t seemed prone to random violence to her. She was probably not in that much more danger than usual. Surely, the senior officers wouldn’t have stuck her with someone they thought would hurt her.

“So they put her with you and not in a brig cell by herself? I know you really wanted a roommate Tilly, but this is ridiculous,” Jim said. “If I were you I’d complain.”

Tilly let out a little mirthless laugh at that. Jim must have less imposing people on his ship. She couldn’t imagine Stamets, Landry, or Captain Lorca listening to her complaints. She couldn’t even imagine talking to Captain Lorca at all. Maybe Commander Saru would listen, but he’d been on the Shenzhou with Michael, he probably wanted to hear about her as little as possible. She also wanted to make a good impression. No. Tilly knew she was probably stuck with Michael for as long as Michael was on board.

“It’s only for a few days and she’s so quiet I barely know she’s here when she’s off duty,” Tilly said.

“Off duty? She’s on duty?” Jim rubbed his temple.

“I shouldn’t have told you that.”

“You don’t say. The way your ship works gives me a headache,” he said. Tilly just shrugged.

She was a cadet, it wasn’t like there was anything she or even Ensign Kirk could do about it. The door slid open. Michael’s shift must have ended. Tilly had lost track of time.

“You are conducting a social call. My apologies.” Michael said.

Tilly had known her only for a handful of hours, but sometimes Michael could sound so Vulcan that it made Tilly want to double-check her ears for points.

“Don’t worry about it,” Tilly said brightly, probably too brightly. “Jim was just asking about my new roommate. Jim, this is Michael. Michael, this is Ensign Jim Kirk. We were at the Academy together.”

“Hello,” Michael said.

“Hi. Nice to meet you,” Jim said sounding completely sincere and warm.

Tilly wanted to groan, he was turning on the charm on her mutineer temporary roommate of all people. Michael just raised an eyebrow.

“Excuse me,” Michael said, heading into the bathroom.

“Huh. You weren’t kidding when you said she was quiet,” Jim said.

“She was raised on Vulcan,” Tilly offered.

“Couldn’t tell,” Jim said dryly and then turned away. “Oh, damn, you’re right. Thanks for the heads up.” He turned back. “Tilly, I’ve got to go.”

“Alright. Go do fun important ensign things,” she said.

Jim rolled his eyes. “Good luck with your roommate. Stay safe.”

“You stay safe, too. Bye.”

“Bye.”

The connection closed and Jim’s image winked out. Tilly counted the seconds until Michael emerged from hiding. She got to forty-seven. Michael sat on her bed.

“I’m sorry for intruding on your—”

“Really, don’t worry about it. It’s not like there’s anywhere else you can go right now,” Tilly said trying to infuse kindness and understanding into the matter-of-fact words.

If she had to live with Michael, she didn’t want to hurt her again. She had regretted her words in the lab as soon as she had said them.

“I hope my presence did not cut your conversation short.”

“It didn’t. He’s going on shift soon,” Tilly said.

Michael seemed satisfied with that and stretched out on her bunk, folding her hands on her stomach and staring at the ceiling. Tilly wondered briefly how she could go from standing to sitting to laying down so quickly and neatly. She also knew she probably wasn’t going to get anymore conversation out of Michael today. Tilly twisted around and snagged a PADD off her desk and began to browse through the documents on it for anything that could help Stamets with getting longer jumps out of the Spore Drive. Well, she had to try.

 

**5**

 

 

There were a few advantages to being George Kirk’s son and being able to get a seat for your friend’s medal ceremony was one of them. His ship had been recalled to Earth and was now docked for repairs since the war was over. Even if that hadn’t been the case, he would have tried to at least watch this ceremony. There had been an incomprehensible amount of loss during the war, but Jim could remember the day that Discovery had been declared destroyed with all hands lost so clearly. It was the first time one of his close friends had been taken by the war. Getting the news that there had been a mistake, that Discovery wasn’t destroyed and only their captain had been killed in the line of duty during the incident had been as surreal as the war suddenly being over days after they had been found.

This whole thing was surreal, actually. Commander Michael Burnham was up on the dais giving a speech about Starfleet principles which didn’t help matters. He’d asked his dad about that and he’d only said that she’d been pardoned and reinstated and that was the end of it. According to the reports he’d seen, she and the rest of Discovery had been instrumental in ending the war but never said how. Jim suspected he’d never know.

Commander Burnham was done talking now and Jim rose to clap with everyone else. Admiral Cornwell closed out the ceremony and people started drifting off in the direction of the reception and the promises of a banquet lunch.

“Go talk to your friend, son,” his dad said, clapping him on the shoulder and walking away with the crowd toward the exit.

“Ensign Tilly,” Jim said, having finally gotten through the crowd, it had taken long enough that the group of Discovery officers had just been released from the photographers.

Tilly whipped around.

“Jim!”

She extended her arms out. Jim hugged her, lifting her briefly off her feet just because he could.

“I didn’t know you’d be here. It’s so great to see you. It’s been forever.” She drew out the last word as they pulled out of the hug.

It almost was, Jim thought.

“I wouldn’t have missed it,” Jim said.

“Tilly? We’re heading to the reception now.”

Commander Michael Burnham had walked over to them. Jim noticed she was a lot prettier and a little shorter than she’d looked when he’d seen her over the holo-comms and from his seat in the audience. She seemed friendlier now too, but it was probably better not to get any ideas about that. Was she even still Tilly’s roommate? Jim shook himself out of it, only then noticing Tilly’s narrowed eyes.

“Michael, you remember my friend Jim,” Tilly said.

“Yes, indeed,” she said. A corner of her mouth twitched up for a second.

“Commander Burnham, it’s nice to finally meet you in person.”

“You too, Ensign Kirk,” Michael replied. She was smiling and Jim fell a little in love despite himself. “Tilly sa—“

“There’s food at these things, right? I was way too nervous and skipped breakfast this morning,” Tilly said quickly, starting to walk away.

“Tilly…” Michael admonished, walking after Tilly.

Jim started moving too, keeping pace a step behind Michael.

“I know. I know. Don’t skip meals. Get the proper ratio of macronutrients with a variety of micronutrients,” Tilly said.

This was clearly a discussion they’d had before.

“And yet,” Michael said.

Jim couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped. Tilly stopped until she was alongside Jim with Michael now carrying on in front of them.

“As for you, don’t even start,” Tilly said.

“I’d never comment on your eating habits.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

“Who me?”

“Yes, you. Don’t get any ideas.”

“Why my dear Ensign Tilly, I would never.”

“Seriously. Don’t.”

“Wait, have you?”

“What? No. Definitely not. That wasn’t what I was trying to say at all.”

“Right. That was a totally believable declaration on your part.”

“Stop it. You’re the unbelievable one, trying to change the subject like that.”

“Do I even want to know what you two are bickering about back there?” Michael said.

She’d stopped at the doorway to the reception hall. Jim finally noticed they’d fallen further behind during their discussion.

“You really don’t,” Tilly said, glaring at him as they caught up to Michael and finally entered the reception.

 

**+1**

 

 

They weren’t drunk, but they were docked and on enforced R + R so it was a definite possibility. Except for Spock, who was sitting stiffly upright in his chair across from Jim with only a water glass in front of him. This was despite Scotty’s offers of scotch and Bones having brought Saurian brandy to the proceedings. Spock had been far more reticent than ever before to join them tonight.

If Jim was any judge then Spock was entering one of his contemplative phases Fleet Captain Pike had warned him about. Jim hadn’t known exactly what he meant at the time, but he was starting to get the idea.

“Anyone remember that ship with the mushrooms?” Scotty said in between sips of scotch.

“That’s near seditious of you, Mr. Scott,” Jim said.

“Aye, begging your pardon, Captain,” he said completely unabashed.

“Under the circumstances, I’ll allow it,” Jim said.

He’d always thought Starfleet had been a little foolish to think that they could just wipe Discovery out of history for those who’d known people on it.

“What an idea that was. I’ll take Dilithium any day,” Scotty continued to no one in particular.

“I had a friend on that ship,” Jim said.

Spock raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

“I’m so sorry, Captain,” said Scotty.

“I didn’t know that,” Bones said.

“Yeah, she was at the Academy with me. Brilliant theoretical engineer. She was just an ensign. Tilly, that was her name.”

“She, huh?” Bones asked. “Figures.”

“Not like that, Bones. I did have one hell of a crush on her roommate on that ship for a while though,” he said wistfully. S

pock’s water glass hit the table with a hard thunk as he started coughing.

“Easy there, Spock,” Bones said, thumping Spock on the back once. “Wrong way?”

“Indeed, Doctor,” Spock said, his voice hoarse.

Jim noticed he didn’t say anything about Bones attempting percussive maintenance on him. Definitely one of those phases then.

“Honestly, I never stood a chance. Tilly would have made sure of that, if necessary. Which it definitely wasn’t. Her roommate couldn’t have been less interested,” Jim said.

Bones chuckled. “I like her already.”

Jim saw the slight widening of Spock’s eyes and the tiny shake of his head at that, but he filed it away for later.

“They were both amazing, though. Beautiful, incredibly intelligent, funny, fantastic officers. Tilly’s roommate could probably beat even Mr. Spock in chess on top of everything else, that’s how good she was. We all went sightseeing in Paris once. Tilly lived there for a while growing up, she knew all the places to go. I’ve never had so much fun in so many museums as during that trip.” Jim sighed and took a drink.

It’d been years since Discovery had been lost, but that had only dulled the pain of it. She’d been the first in a long line of friends from the Academy he had lost. She hadn’t had a chance to be promoted or even graduate from the CTP. It was so wasteful. He kept waiting for that strange ship to miraculously reappear as it had before with its crew safe and sound. How many times could a starship be destroyed only to be found intact with its crew again anyway? It had to be at least twice, didn’t it? There was a precedent for it with that ship.

“What was the roommate’s name, Jim?” Bones asked.

“Oh, she w—”

“I’m sorry gentlemen, but I must take my leave,” Spock said already having sprung to his feet and started towards the door.

“Are you all right Spock? You’re not getting sick are you?” Bones asked.

A sick half Vulcan who wouldn’t share his whole medical file with his doctor made him nervous. He’d complained to Jim about it before. Spock slowed his pace to something more measured.

“I am quite fine, Doctor,” he said as he reached the door.

“Let him go, Bones. I’m sure he’s had enough of human socialization by now,” Jim said.

Spock nodded and walked out.

“That was peculiar Jim and you know it,” Bones said.

“Mr. Spock is just a private person. If he wants us to know he’ll tell us.”

“Yeah. Right. When pigs fly, maybe,” Bones said into his brandy.

**Author's Note:**

> [My tumblr](https://bitterific.tumblr.com)


End file.
